"And now, what you've all been waiting for..." professor Kim Hanbin did a drum roll on the teacher's desk. He was in especially high spirits today.

"Your first assignment feedback, aren't you excited?" he waved a thick stack of papers. Bobby wasn't holding his breath, except he actually was.

The teacher headed straight for their table first. Oh no, so he was yet again going to put on a show where Bobby was the clown and he was the puppet master. Embarrassing him in front of the whole class had become a sport for him, a sport at which he excelled.

Contrary to his expectations, the professor didn't even look at him when he reached their table. He was literally beaming at Jinhwan, handing him his homework back as if it was the crown jewels themselves. Jinhwan turned red instantly, shyly checking his grade. A very satisfied smile planted itself on his lips before he had the chance to hide it. He should be happy, Bobby thought. It wasn't easy to get a high grade in this class, damn near impossible actually. The teacher sent him a proud wink before moving along, ignoring Bobby completely. It was better than being bullied, he tried to convince himself, but for some reason he couldn't stop his heart from sinking.

One by one, he handed out the assignments, and each time the groans grew louder. Bobby guessed that he was handing them out in backwards order of the grades, since Jinhwan, the current golden boy, had gotten his first and the expressions of the students receiving their papers back were gradually growing darker. Bobby still hadn't gotten his back yet. He had an ominous feeling about this.

If only he wasn't last, he silently pleaded. He could handle everything except being at the very bottom of the entire class. That would indicate that he had made the wrong decision, coming here, risking everything for an unstable career. A risk that would swallow him whole if it turned out he didn't have any talent, that he had just been kidding himself from the very start.

He watched as the stack of papers got thinner and thinner.

Then there were only three left.

Two.

When Bobby reached out for the paper that had been at the very bottom of the stack, being branded the official loser of the class, something broke inside of him. He had hoped for some kind of explanation at least, but he didn't even get that. After practically throwing his homework in his face, professor Kim just moved along, continuing the class like nothing had happened.

He looked at his grade, D-. And no accompanying reason why. Bobby was furious. He couldn't believe how unfairly he was being treated. He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, but instead he silently waited for the class to be over.

"Go ahead, I need to speak to professor Kim for a second." Bobby told Jinhwan, who happily bounced out the door and disappeared.

When the last student headed for the door, he stormed towards the teacher's desk, trying to keep his murderous thoughts in check.

"Oh, Bobby, right? What can I do for you?" he said distracted, like he had no idea what this conversation could be about. And he knew full well that his name was Bobby, he thought irritated. He had never met as foul a person before in his life. Before this, he wouldn't even have believed one existed.

"I just..." Bobby had spent so much time silently cussing him that he had forgotten to actually come up with what he was going to say. It was hard to think with those perfectly symmetric eyes staring right through him.

"Yes?" professor Kim said impatiently, starting to gather his stuff. No, he couldn't let him leave without hearing him out.

"I don't think my paper was fairly graded, sir." he stated firmly, nailing his feet to the floor, taking a stand. He only hoped that it wasn't visible how much his feet were trembling.

"Oh, no?" the professor's voice was laced with evil intrigue.

"No. I put a lot of work into this." Bobby said stubbornly, feeling the tables turn in the teacher's favor, without really understanding why.

"So you are saying this is the best you can do?" his piercing gaze felt like it was going to cut him in half. It somehow felt like a trick question, but since he wasn't sure what kind, he didn't dare answer.

"Cuz if it is, I'll gladly remove the minus." he added smirking.

"But compared to the others.." Bobby started in a complaining tone, but professor Kim cut him off.

"Forget the others.. are you saying that if you're surrounded by incompetent people, you think you should be rewarded by being slightly less incompetent? What about if they were doing their absolute best while still coming up short, and you were just half-assing it because that was all that was needed for you to come out on top, you still think you deserve that reward?" there was fire in his eyes, his handsome face hiding the monster within.

"Ehhh..." Bobby stalled to give himself some time to think.

"Take it or leave it, if you really think you couldn't possibly do better, I'll give you a pity D, else we have nothing more to discuss." he said sternly, ending the discussion before it even started.

With his head hanging, he left the classroom not only feeling like a complete failure, but also like a useless idiot that didn't even deserve the air he was breathing. This was not the free-spirited college life he had imagined.